Caribbean Immigrants Now Account For Vast Majority Of Black Immigrants In US

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Jan. 21, 2021: The vast majority of Black immigrants in the US now are from the Caribbean, at least as of 2019.

That’s according to the latest Pew Center data by Christine Tamir, Research Analyst and Monica Anderson, released Thursday.

Just under half of the foreign-born Black population were born in this region or 4 percent according to Pew. Jamaica and Haiti are the two largest origin countries, accounting for 16% and 15% of Black immigrants, respectively.

The Caribbean immigrant community in the US also did not just get off the “boat.” New data shows most have been living in the United States for over two decades.

The data shows that over half of Black immigrants born in the Caribbean or 56 percent have been in the U.S. 20 years or longer.

Caribbean-born Black adults saw the largest increases from 2000 to 2019 in educational attainment – a 7 percentage point increase each to 23 percent.

Caribbean-born Black immigrants largely lived in either the Northeast (48%) or the South (47%), with just 3% living in the Midwest and Western regions of the U.S.

While the share of Caribbean-born Black immigrants who reside in the South has increased by 10 percentage points. The share of Caribbean-born Black immigrants who reside in the Northeast has also fallen over time – in 2000, a 58% majority lived in that region, which dropped to 48% in 2019.

Roughly 260,000 Black Jamaican immigrants lived in the New York City metropolitan region as of 2019, equaling 35% of all foreign-born Black Jamaicans in the U.S.

The Miami metropolitan area is also home to the nation’s largest Black Haitian immigrant community – more than 35% of Black Haitian immigrants live in this area and account for 4% of the metropolitan area’s population.

OTHER FAST FACTS

Caribbean-born immigrants also have the highest rates of US citizenship at 65 percent with the highest median age put at 49.

The median income among Caribbean-born households is $58,200 while roughly half or 57 of foreign-born black households are headed by someone born in the Caribbean.

Some 49 percent own their own homes.

Only 11% of Caribbean-born Black immigrants live below the poverty line.

About six-in-ten Caribbean-born Black adults (59%) say religion is very important to them. The same 59 percent says it is necessary to believe in God to have good values.